DiamondMax Plus 45GB Hard Drive

Test Setup

 

Processor	Intel Pentium III 933 MHz
Mainboard	ASUS CUSL2
Memory	128 MB Corsair PC133 memory
Video	nVidia Geforce 256 SDR
Hard Disk	Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 45
IDE Controller	i815 Ultra DMA/100 controller
Operating System	Microsoft Windows 98SE Windows 2000 Professional
IDE Driver	Intel Busmaster DMA drivers 6.0

In order to compare the test results I included results of two other drives, the IBM Deskstar 75GXP 30GB drive and the Quantum Fireball Plus LM 20GB drive.

In its outer zone the DM plus 45 achieves a data transfer rate of 33.5MB/sec, which is only second to the IBM Deskstar 75GXP which achieves a transfer rate of 36.9MB/sec. However it receives first place as data moves towards the inner tracks, where the DM plus 45 gets a score of 22.1MB/sec in contrast to IBM’s 19.3MB/sec. The Quantum drive also achieves a higher score in this, coming close to the DM plus 45.

The DM plus 45 performs exceptionally well in the Business Disk WinMark 99 test achieving a score of 7.96MB/sec beating the IBM drive, which achieves only a score of 7.7MB/sec. In both the tests the Quantum drive sadly is way behind the rest. Even in the High-End Disk WinMark 99 the DM plus 45 receives a score of 18.5MB/sec, which is no doubt one of the best scores I have ever seen for an ATA drive. Yet the IBM 75GXP leads in this section by about 2%.

Contrast in performance when Write Verify mode is enabled

The tests clearly show that enabling this feature certainly has a significant impact on the drive’s overall performance. However Maxtor’s objective of offering this utility was for something totally different. I.e. to ensure higher levels of data write accuracies.

No significant difference to speak about here. All drives produce more or less the same amount of heat. Of course the temperature readings were taken without any cooling sollution, so you could expect this to be much lower if it was otherwise.